Kat gave her a bright smile. “That’s what friends are for. If I can’t eat greasy food for you with dessert on the side, what kind of friend would I be?”
“You wouldn’t be mine.”
When Kat hung up the phone, Theodora turned to her and asked the question that been haunting her since she’d walked out of Alejandro’s condo.
“How am I supposed to work with him now? How am I supposed to walk into that shop and not think about how stupid I was to start…dreaming the dreams I dreamed? How will I keep myself from hating the back room simply because it’s the first place we made love? How I am supposed to keep my shop when every last inch of it reminds me of a man who made a fool of me?”
Chapter Thirteen
Survival of the Sweetest
Katarina was angry, seething to be exact. Her best friend was the most intelligent woman she had ever met but the woman was acting as if her brain could not work. And try as she might, Kat could not jumpstart it.
It was time to start working with a new product. It was time to talk to Alejandro.
Katarina couldn’t stop fidgeting as she sat in the plush restaurant waiting for her date. The nagging voice in the back of her mind told her she was opening a can of worms she had no right to even touch.
Still…
Kat damn near sighed when he appeared. The air in her lungs rushed through her parted lips as she gasped, taking in the masculine beauty that covered every inch of Alejandro Alba.
The dark slash of his ebony eyebrows. Raven colored hair that was roguishly long and called to every woman, daring her to run her fingers through the shiny midnight strands. Fathomless, beautiful eyes the color of perfectly aged whiskey and just as intoxicating. The full lips that promised endless, erotic kisses at midnight and finally, the body that made a woman think of ancient warriors, men with muscle, mass, and something indescribable that brought to mind images of pillages.
Lord, what she wouldn’t give to be pillaged by him.
Damn! Theodora had to be crazy to walk away from a man like that. Katarina knew Alejandro well enough to know that the man had been infatuated with her best friend for over a year and he wasn’t the kind of man to want a toy only as long as he couldn’t have it.
She had been waiting for him try and capture Theodora from the moment he started working at her bakery.
Alejandro had not and would not cheat on Theo. But Kat feared she knew exactly why Theo was running.
Theo loved Alejandro and was afraid that she wasn’t enough for the young stud.
For the past few weeks the stupid woman had been harping on the fact that the relationship never would have worked anyway. Apparently Theodora believed that she was too old and made too much money to have an actual, legitimate, till death do us part relationship with Alejandro.
Alejandro gave her a strained smile when he sat down. It was obvious that he was as uncomfortable with their meeting as she was.
“This is not a good idea.”
For a few moments Katarina was stunned into silence. Then red heat infused her face as she became angry. How dare he? She was trying to help his ass. She opened her mouth to rip him a new one when he spoke.
“I don’t want you getting caught in the middle of this. If…when she finds out about this she’ll be angry and I don’t want to take the chance that she won’t forgive you. She needs you now and I’m not sure she’ll be calm enough to realize that.”
Bloody fucking hell! The bastard was right. Theo had a temper that when ignited burned hotter and was more destructive than a volcano. She could very well kill Kat for this.
“Damn.”
For several minutes Kat stewed in her misery, thinking over what had been a glorious plan. She was going to have to make sure that Theodora didn’t find out about this meeting, because…
Alejandro’s softly spoken words cut through her musing.
“How is she doing? Is she eating properly?”
Kat stared at Alejandro’s handsome, hardened face for several seconds. He was obviously trying to keep his emotions hidden. Too bad she could feel the anguish, anxiousness, and pain simmering between them. “If you called her, you would know.”
He snorted. “If I called her, I would find out very quickly just how many curse words my querida knows.”
Kat paused, hand over her water glass. She wondered if Alejandro knew what he let slip out. The man still thought of Theodora as his woman, his querida.
“Call her, Alejandro. Be man enough to handle the fire. The truth is you want her and she wants you. Hell, she needs you.”
He leaned forward. The act reminded Kat of just how large of a man he was. She looked up into his bottomless brown eyes and immediately felt like a deer as she was caught up in his swirling gaze. He had the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen.
“I don’t want a woman who doesn’t trust me, doesn’t trust that the man, the emotions I’ve shown her are real. I don’t want or need a woman who doesn’t understand that I love her with my whole heart, with everything that I am.”
With a slow blink, Katarina righted herself, falling away from Alejandro’s dark gaze. All that emotion, passion, pain, and anger, had left her mesmerized for several seconds. The man felt. He felt more than she had ever given him credit for.
Theodora was out of her mind to walk away from a man who loved her that much.
“You’re not the problem, Alejandro. She is. Theo’s had it hard with men. Her whole life she has been second best, always the one left behind when her boyfriends found a better, younger, flashier model.”
“And I am to pay for their mistakes.”
The statement hadn’t been a question requiring an answer, but Kat, big mouth that she was, couldn’t help responding. “If you let her walk away you will,” she retorted. “Her exes, every last one of the bastards made her feel like she was the problem. You need to show her that you are the answer. Don’t let her hide behind the fact that she’s older, makes more money or is fat.”
“My querida is not fat,” he said softly.
Katarina felt the words like a bullet to the heart. She could not wait until the day a man felt that way about her size eighteen body.
“Well then, show her that you love her and are not willing to let her walk away.”
Alejandro’s eyes darkened. His lips parted, ready to give her a blistering account of why she was probably sticking her nose where it did not belong when the waiter approached with their menus and the bread.
Kat almost kissed the young man for his timely disturbance. She quickly ordered for both herself and Alejandro, ignoring the young man’s raised eyebrow over her audacity.
Before he could comment on her actions, Kat made a beeline for the restroom.
* * * * *
Alejandro watched Katarina make her way toward the back of the restaurant. He knew she was running from him and he couldn’t blame her.
Alejandro had no desire to be in the restaurant with Theodora’s best friend talking about how a woman who didn’t trust him needed him.
He glared at Kat’s retreating back, barely paying attention as she stopped and talked to a couple dining together. For a few moments he couldn’t help thinking about the woman who had rocked his world before destroying it. There was something about the woman Kat was talking to that reminded him of Theodora. Then again, he had been seeing Theodora everywhere.
Once, he’d envisioned her walking past him while he was dressing in his gym’s locker room. Too bad when Alejandro looked around he found himself in the midst of men, and only men.
He started to turn away from the sight of the woman who reminded him too much of his querida when she turned to the side, revealing her profile as she waved to Katarina.
Alejandro sucked in his gut as fists of emotions landed hard in his abdomen. For once, the vision of Theodora Adams wasn’t a mirage, but the truth.
And the truth hurt like hell.
Alejandro wasn’t aware of when he stood or how he made his way a
cross the restaurant, but somehow he found himself standing in front of Theodora’s table, staring down at her with hot anger bubbling through his veins.
Her dinner date noticed his looming presence first. He stopped in mid-sentence and stared at Alejandro. Theodora glanced at her date’s face and followed his gaze.
Alejandro felt a savage sense of joy when her gaze connected with his. Her eyes widened with shock and dimmed with pain, before tightening in anger.
“Excuse me,” she murmured to her dinner date before throwing her napkin on the table, grabbing his arm, and marching them to the alcove that housed the restrooms.
He cornered Theodora before she could say a word. Pressing his chest against hers, Alejandro flattened her breasts, forcing Theodora back against the cold wooden wall. She gasped in surprise at the intimate, domineering touch.
He saw the anger etched on the lovely planes of her face. Her full lips parted, ready to tell him about her outrage. Alejandro staved her off and pressed his mouth against hers, taking advantage of her parted lips to thrust his tongue deep. But he knew her well enough to know she wasn’t going to let him get away with touching her. Using the strength of his thighs, he pried her legs apart, until the thick bulge of his erection was in the cradle between her hips. Alejandro managed to grab her hand seconds before it would have landed in his hair.
Alejandro knew that if her fingers got anywhere near his hair, he would be leaving the restaurant with a lot fewer strands. He moved away from her, giving her just enough room to take a deep breath, but nothing more. Their lips were less than an inch apart. “Behave, querida,” he growled.
Her eyes snapped to his. The fire in her gaze would have singed a weaker man. “Like hell I will.”
He watched her for several seconds, his eyes searching hers. Finally, he spoke. “Fine, pull my hair out if you want to, but I’m warning you. I’ll get mine and I’ll make you scream when I do.”
She blinked up at him. Then the dark espresso color of her eyes deepened with arousal before flaring with irritation.
They both knew he wasn’t above fucking her, right there in the hallway in front of the restrooms. They’d had sex in public before and if he remembered right she’d liked it then.
“You are one hell of an ass. Now, if you’re done I’d like to go back to my seat,” she gritted out between clenched teeth.
“Do you love him?”
“I don’t think that’s any of your business,” Theodora said crisply, as she tried to inch her way from beneath him. Like a cat playing with a tantalizing mouse, Alejandro let her go a few feet before grabbing her arm and dragging her back against him.
“Every inch of you is my business,” he growled before pressing his lips against the rapidly beating pulse at the base of her neck.
Theodora growled something that sounded distinctly like a curse, but he ignored her, sliding the scorching, velvet heat of his tongue on top of her pulse.
She gave a small shriek at the feel of his teeth against her when he nipped her hard, just the way she liked it.
“Tell me,” he murmured against her moist skin. “Does he understand you, how to please you? Have you let him learn all the secrets I know?”
She started to struggle against him, but Alejandro held her tightly. “Does he know that you like it hard and fast the first time, but that to really make you scream, the loving has to be slow, teasing, and last all night long? Tell me, Theodora. Does he make you shout at the top of your lungs? Put me out of my misery and tell me he can’t give it to you like I can.”
“I’m not sleeping with anyone,” she said softly as if she couldn’t take in enough air to strengthen the words.
“Thank God. I don’t think I could handle being replaced so quickly.”
“I could never replace you.”
At Theodora’s whispered words, Alejandro felt his heart skip a beat. He’d been so afraid she felt nothing for him, especially after their last conversation, he hadn’t been able to get up the nerve to contact her and try to talk things through.
He tilted her head to look deep into her eyes. “Say it again.”
“There’s no point in going there.”
“Isn’t there?”
A shocked sob escaped from her. Alejandro stepped back and looked down at Theodora to find tears in her eyes. “Why are you doing this to me? Haven’t you hurt me enough?”
The sight of the woman who owned his heart in pain made Alejandro doubt himself for a moment, but then the memory of her writing a check for his services cut through the tender emotion.
She wasn’t the only one in pain.
Because of her, he could barely make it through a night.
She was the reason they were in the situation they were currently in.
He snorted. “Haven’t I hurt you enough?” he asked, his voice full of gravel, pain, and anger. “Tell me, are you going to let that bastard raise my child? Is Mr. Armani Suit over there good enough to be the father you won’t let me be?”
Theodora stared at him for several seconds, surprise evident on her face.
“Damn it. Answer me. Will my son or daughter be calling him Daddy?”
Confusion lit her face. After a moment Theodora sighed with resignation. “He’s not who you think he is. I’m not on a date, Alejandro. At least not that kind of date. You interrupted a business dinner.” She chewed her bottom lip nervously. “I’m selling the shop. He’s a real estate agent. Apparently he’s the best in town.”
That information threw Alejandro for a loop. Before the thought was formulated, he spoke. “Why the hell are you selling your shop? You love it.”
The moment the words were out of his mouth, Alejandro realized just how stupid he sounded. They both knew why she was selling her beloved shop. Still, he wanted to hear her say the words.
“Answer the question, querida. Why are you selling your store?”
“Don’t you dare call me that! We’re not together. Only couples call one another pet names.”
“We are a couple, Theodora. You know it. I know it. Now if only you would accept it, we could be together, the way we’re supposed to be.” He murmured the words against her lips, parted in shock and outrage a second before claiming her mouth in a harsh, bruising kiss. All of the emotion he had pent up since she’d walked out of his condo, all the emotion that had surged to the surface when he saw her sitting across the room from him, and all the emotion he felt as he pressed his body against hers went into the tongue-tangling kiss.
“I will get my answer,” he whispered against her open mouth before running his tongue across her quivering bottom lip, caressing the full, firm flesh with a velvet heat that left them both shaking with need.
“How could you think to walk away from me, from your store, from all you’ve earned?” One hand drifted up her side to cup one heavy breast. He easily found her diamond hard nipple and tweaked it.
“How could you walk away from all that we’ve become?”
“Please,” she groaned.
He pinched the tight bud just a little harder, knowing he wasn’t giving her enough of what she needed, but giving her enough of what she wanted to keep her on the cusp of satisfaction.
She shook her head. “We shouldn’t…can’t do this.”
“Give me one reason why we shouldn’t.”
“Do you love me?”
He froze. Yes, his mind screamed but his mouth couldn’t seem to formulate the words. He knew he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, could picture them having and raising children together, but he couldn’t say the words.
He couldn’t help wondering if what he felt was stronger than attraction.
She gave him a watery smile. “See, Alejandro? This why it won’t work. We’re at different points in our lives. I want marriage and kids. Kids, if I can’t get the ring, but I refuse to compromise and I won’t wait. Not a year, not two years. I need both of them now.”
“You want a ring?” he choked out. Alejandro wasn’t about to a
dmit that she was right. Even in his fantasy he hadn’t pictured himself getting married for a few years. He believed they were headed that way, but had not considered he’d be popping the question quite that quickly.
“Yes, I want a ring and I wanted it last year, so let me go, Alejandro,” she whispered as she pressed at the wall of his chest.
He felt the simple act deep in his heart. Her rejection burned. Still, he didn’t want to let her go. The truth was he wasn’t sure he could let her go.
She had sunk under his skin and he didn’t want to be with out her.
But he wasn’t ready to get married, at least not according to her timeline.
He stared into her eyes. For a moment she held his gaze. Then her gaze dropped to his chest.
She couldn’t look him in the eyes.
“Damn it, Alejandro. Don’t you think we’ve been through enough? Let me go. Let me get on with my life.”
“Without me? Is that really what you want?”
She jerked and her body went taut with hard lines of tension and unease. Her head lifted until her blazing gaze collided with his. “There are a lot of things I want that I can’t have, but this…this is exactly what I need.”
Alejandro loosened his hold and took a step back. Theodora smoothed one shaky hand down her skirt suit, took a deep calming breath and walked away as he stood in the shadowed hallway.
Chapter Fourteen
Sour Good-bye
Alejandro stared with unseeing eyes out the large bay window that seemed to take up the whole wall. He stood in his room, packing up the evidence of over two years of his life, but his mind was on the past and on a future that would never be.
The painful, haunted look in Theodora’s dark eyes had scarred him, leaving him more bruised and broken than he could have believed possible after watching her walk out of his condo.
But nothing had prepared him for finding out that he had hurt her. No, he had done more than hurt her. From the look in her eyes, Alejandro was worried that he had broken her, broken her heart, shattered her self-esteem, and ripped apart her soul.
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